Heritage Open Days: Everyday Histories #5: John Ray, Parson-Academic
John Ray is one of the most famous residents of Middleton Hall, but his origins were humble and he rose through the social and reputational strata due to opportunities provided by his occupation. This post will focus on the nature and some of the challenges of being a parson-academic in the 17th century that Ray faced.
John Ray was born on 29th November 1627 in Black Notley in Essex. His father was the village blacksmith and his mother was the village herbalist. In that era, there were strict social hierarchies and a poor youth like Ray would have had few opportunities to quit the sphere he had been born into. One such rare opportunity was through the church and university.
John Ray’s earliest education came at the church school of St Peter and St Paul’s in Black Notley where he was taught by the local curates, Thomas Goad and then Joseph Plume. They recognised Ray’s extraordinary academic ability and arranged for him to attend Braintree Grammar School, where he started in September 1638 when he was 10 years old.
Despite his natural ability, he still would have struggled to go to university because of its expense. However, a late local vicar of Braintree, Thomas Hobbs, in his will had left a scholarship trust fund for young scholars from the area to enable them to be able to go to university. The terms of the trust specified that the recipient must attend Catharine Hall at the University of Cambridge. Ray was a recipient of this scholarship and he began at Catharine Hall in June 1644. He entered as a sizar. Sizars were poor students who, for subsidised tuition and board, performed minor service duties alongside their studies.
In 1646, Ray transferred to Trinity College at the University of Cambridge. It was here that he subsequently met Francis Willughby and made many other connections that would be invaluable in his later work. In 1648, he graduated with a Bachelor of Arts (BA) degree, which established his ability as a brilliant scholar of Latin, Hebrew and the humanities. At this time, although many who were from wealthy backgrounds would attend a university, significantly fewer actually completed a degree as the degree itself was superfluous to their needs. They just needed knowledge. However, someone from a poorer background needed the completed degree to progress in an occupation. This began Ray’s academic career, which whilst he stayed in academia provided him with not only an income but also a residence and access to all the resources he needed.
In 1649, he was elected as a Minor Fellow of Trinity College and in 1651, after receiving his Master of Arts (MA) degree, he was promoted to Major Fellow and appointed as a Greek Lecturer at the College. In 1653, Ray changed from teaching languages to the sciences and became a Mathematics Lecturer at the College. In 1655, he was appointed to the prestigious role of Humanity Reader, in which he oversaw studies in classical literature. In 1657, he was appointed as a Junior Dean, an administrative role within the College. He was then elected twice, in 1659 and 1660, as College Steward. In this role he managed the day-to-day finances, provisions and operations of Trinity College. At this stage, he was widely viewed as having an extremely promising career and a bright future.
One of the most stunning aspects of this, is that the subjects that Ray was employed to teach were not subjects for which he would become famous for in his later life. This is because Ray was not bound to a single subject as this was the era of the great polymaths in which people excelled in multiple fields. Soon after this, that approach would be considered as a jack-of-all-trades and master-of-none and, as a result, academia changed completely to specialisation. The specialisation approach to education and professions still dominates today. As an aside, Ray would therefore study in other fields such as chemistry and the emerging field of natural history. In Ray’s time, science and religion were interwoven and his religion was very important to him. Hence, he would frequently, as a lay person, deliver sermons and preach religious discourses to the students and faculty in Trinity College Chapel. He was also invited to preach at Great St Mary’s Church, the University of Cambridge’s official church, which enabled him to give a religious address to the wider university.
In December 1660, Ray took the step to be officially ordained as a deacon and a priest, swearing his oaths to the King and the Church and taking holy orders in the Church of England. At the time, this would have opened up another stable career progression opportunity for him. However, it would actually end both his academic and religious career.
On 19th May 1662, the Act of Uniformity was passed. This included a condition known as the Abjuration Clause. It required everyone in public office, including all clergy and academics, to formally swear that the Presbyterian Solemn League and Covenant, which had been passed during the Civil War, was unlawful. They had until the following 24th August to sign their adherence to the Act. Many did not, as they had signed the Covenant and refused to recant. However, Ray had not signed it but he believed that any oath made to God was a sacred binding vow and that this Clause, forcing men to swear that someone else’s holy oath was void, amounted to state sanctioned perjury. He took the decision that his personal moral code and his clerical vows to uphold absolute truth made it impossible for him to sign.
Someone with a wealthy background or a trade or lower status worker, who was not dependent on public office for their career could hold those moral sensibilities. However, this was career, financial and social suicide for everyone else. This is because the penalty was that anyone who did not sign was declared a Nonconformist and barred from working in public office and preaching. Overnight, Ray had no career and no home. He was forced to leave Cambridge.
Ray was left to appeal for aid from his friends. Francis Willughby answered his plea, inviting him to come and live at Middleton Hall. Ray occasionally took various tutoring jobs around the country but, for the majority of the time, Ray and Willughby worked together on their various studies. Following Willughby’s death in 1672, Ray was left an annuity from the Middleton Estate of £60 a year, which is the equivalent of about £6,826.71 today or at that time the equivalent of about 857 days’ work for a skilled tradesman. This was Ray’s principal income for the remainder of his life.
Ray then taught Francis Willughby’s children and finished and published some of Willughby’s unpublished works. After Willughby’s widow Emma remarried in 1676 and left Middleton Hall with her children, Ray left Middleton Hall with his wife, Margaret Oakley, who was the former governess of the children. He then took up various private tutoring roles before resettling back in his childhood home. Ray spent the remainder of his life finishing Willughby’s work and publishing a large number of his own works.
During his life, Ray managed to publish about 20 works and three were published posthumously. In his era, the modern publishing model did not exist and printing was extremely expensive. In order to pay for the publishing of his works, Ray had to rely on a complex mix of: patronage; wealthy friends; scientific societies such as the Royal Society; subscription; and pre-orders from commercial booksellers.
Ray was subsequently lauded as the father of English natural history and yet his life and career was financially, legally, morally and socially fraught with challenges.
Further Reading: C.E. Raven, John Ray: Naturalist, 2nd edition, 1950.
Author - Debbie Jordan, Middleton Hall Volunteer.
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